This is a something old made new blog post – updated, much yummier recipe and a message given heart-tweaks because not only have I grown since I first wrote this, but those who sit at the table have grown – and so have their tastes, and there are new people, new babies. . . and because cooking isn’t ever just cooking!

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! “ (Psalm 34:8)

My oldest son refused to touch anything with onions for a long time. He says the only reason he eats green beans now is because I made him clean his plate – and he now concedes that some dishes require onions. His taste buds have evolved, matured.

Every one of my boys rejected a side-dish at some point when they were little, balking. Sometimes the balk-reflex needed encouragement to allow the dish to stay down, like “hold your nose, take a drink of your milk and swallow.” Those are signs of immature taste-bud development – which is really quite normal.

With diligence, though, they have learned to clean their plates. That taste-bud friendly food is preferable but we must learn to eat un-favorite foods. Life just doesn’t always dish up favorite living – so we need to learn to swallow through.

Taste buds mature. I don’t remember an oyster before I graduated from high school, but they had been at every Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner since before I could walk. Take cabbage, for example. Couldn’t stand the stuff until I turned 40. I started flirting with beets at 55. Eggplant, though, eggplant was given the green light by my taste buds in my early to mid 20s – my aunt started making eggplant parmesan during the summer. Oh, my – it was amazing – still is. She always made it for my birthday – and it was a tomatoey-parmesan cheesy-eggplant hug! She taught me to make it long ago. She’s no longer here, but when I make it, it’s a sweet remembering, though I grew her recipe into my own. The roots of it are from her kitchen.

In January, we have a 7-9-11 party to celebrate the January birthdays. This year we The Forgotten Celebrations Party, to celebrate the birthdays we couldn’t celebrate together for quarantine. Saturday, we’re having our 14-16-18-18(due via c-section next week)-27 Party. In September, we have a 9-21 Party. There’s a favorite dish, a special dish for each person. One year, one son asked for a raspberry and cream pastry. Key Lime Pie? Baklava? Lately, my plate of oven roasted carrots has been empty – and the oven-roasted beets disappear. I watched my oldest son put green beans on his kiddos plates – and I just quietly smile. 

The table is never just about eating. Time at the table is so much more.

Cooking is never just cooking!

Each new year, each new opportunity to grow, to find new sweetness in new places, to develop more of a taste for God’s things.

In graduate school, a friend worked with Campus Ministries, coaxing and encouraging me to taste scripture, to let it go deep inside, pushing plates and dishes of evangelization in front of me. Yet, she didn’t have the authority to make me swallow. I thought I was full enough. Besides, what she pushed in front of me, well it tasted different, not familiar – like those green beans my son talked about.

I am thankful that God sent someone to ” feed me with the food that is needful for me” (Proverbs 30:8), someone to introduce my spirit buds to other things from God, things that if I would just put inside me, let my spirit digest, would heal my wounds, grow my endurance, to expand my short-sighted vision of what a relationship with the Father really entails. I didn’t see then that I was a daughter of the King, a favored child. My spirit mal-nourishment had me feeling like a forgotten child, a left-behind child, a crumbs-from-the-table child.

“and you give them their food in due season” (Psalm 145:15).

Pride inflammed the ulcerated lining to my soul, stunting my spiritual growth. I was like my son who came in the kitchen the other night, hungry. But not hungry for what I had to give him. God was patient. He knew I was hungry for His word, and with each ensuing season, He fed me a modified diet, building my strength, building my faith with different soul foods, until one day, in the midst of a heart-trial, I believed enough to reach for scripture, to swallow that scripture and to live it.

He still offers up dishes that I balk over – initially. But the balk reflex is gone. New dishes are new opportunities for fresh growth. New dishes are welcome, though there are still days I stand in front of the refrigerator and can’t see anything I want. But nourishment is not always about want, but need.

Each year, each challenge, each lesson, each new awareness of the utensils (tools) God teaches me to use, develops a diverse palate for God’s ever-expanding 5-Star menu. Instead of shoving away what He puts in front of me, I open my mouth wide open with a hospitality attitude for the things of God, a willingness to believe that there is not a meager menu set for my life but a feast, full of good things, new and different things – things that are like Eggplant Parmesan to my soul.

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it” (Psalm 81:10).

No, I do not lie about my age. I am thankful for each year that God has redeemed me from the bondage of dysfunction, rejection and pride. I celebrate each year, with a mouth-wide-open attitude, knowing God is going to fill it with blessing, growing me further away from the darkness into the light, growing me closer to Him, developing the taste buds, the palate of my soul.

Oh, and the next time you share a God-dish, either with seed-planting or evangelizing dish, do not be dis-heartened when your heart-giving of God’s things is pushed away – or even gagged at. You may have gotten more down them than you realized.

 “The eyes of all look to you, “Who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Psalm 103:5)

Eggplant Parmesan for the Soul

Ingredients:

Ingredients:
4 Cups Tomato Sauce (Ingredients and Directions, Click Here)
1 Eggplant (American/Global or Japanese/Chinese depending on whether you want to make appetizers or a dish. See below)
2 Cups flour (season with salt and pepper)
2 eggs + 1 tbsp milk, whisked
2 Cups bread crumbs (Pepperidge Farm Classic Herb Stuffing, Italian Style Progresso or homemade) mixed with the following:
-Sprig of Thyme,
-Sprig of Fresh Basil
-Sprig of Summer Savory or 1/2 tsp
– Sprig of Marjoram or 1/2 tsp.
2 Cups Mozarella Cheese, shredded
2 Cups Parmesan Cheese, shredded.

1) Tomato Sauce: Start with the tomato sauce. I use my tomato soup recipe (Click Here)and cook it down until  it’s no longer a soup and thicker than a sauce. You don’t want it to drain over the eggplant later. You want it to dollop it on top and spread it out with a spoon. 

(The sauce can be made ahead. Cool, cover and refrigerate. Rewarm over medium heat before using).

2) Preparing the Eggplant. There are two types I recommend. The slender Chinese or Japanese eggplants allow for nice medalian-sized slices perfect for appetizers.   The American/Global eggplant allow for slices perfect for a side-dish or even an entree. One American/Global makes about nine slices,

Peel and slice eggplants an hour before cooking. Sprinkle liberally with kosher salt on both sides, to allow the bitter juices to weep from the eggplant. Before using, rinse the salt from the slices, blotting dry with paper towels.

3) Cooking the Eggplant
2 Cups flour (season with salt and pepper)
2 eggs + 1 tbsp milk, whisked
2 Cups bread crumbs (Pepperidge Farm Classic Herb Stuffing, Italian Style Progresso or homemade) mixed with the following:
-Sprig of Thyme,
-Sprig of Fresh Basil
-Sprig of Summer Savory or 1/2 tsp
– Sprig of Marjoram or 1/2 tsp

Dredge the eggplant slices first through the flour, coating each side; then through the eggs, coating each side; then through the bread crumbs, coating each side.

Drop  them into a deep fryer until they are golden brown on each side, 4-5 minutes on each side. Set on a paper towel when done.

4) Assembling Eggplant Parmesan: When you’re ready, start layering:
First) Layer eggplant parmesan on the bottom,
Second) Scoop tomato sauce to cover each individual slice
Third) Heavily sprinkle mozzarella/parmesan cheese on top  of that. 

5) Cooking Eggplant Parmesan: Broil  to melt the cheese. Sprinkle with more parmesan and add a spring of a garden herb. 

Eggplant Parmesan for the Soul, a dish for the maturing taste buds.